Abyss and volcano · Lexicon

From the book

René

François-René de Chateaubriand · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordAn abîme is a gulf or profound opening, both a physical depth and a figure for an existence that cannot be filled.
In RenéRené explicitly identifies the scene on Etna as an image of his character and life.
In this editionThe supplied English preserves “abyss”, making the recurrence audible.
A place to readun abîme ouvert à mes côtés — René makes the volcanic scene an explicit personal emblem.

Meaning

An abîme is a gulf or profound opening, both a physical depth and a figure for an existence that cannot be filled. Etna gives this inner metaphor a visible setting: elevated vision and a dangerous cavity occupy the same scene. The volcano is not simply a conventional emblem of anger. Its spatial arrangement matters as much as its heat.

Use in the book

René explicitly identifies the scene on Etna as an image of his character and life. The world appears simultaneously immense and almost invisible; the speaker sits above other mortals while an abyss opens beside him. This is an unusually secure symbolic reading because René himself supplies it. It is still his chosen self-portrait, addressed to listeners whom he expects to pity him, rather than an unqualified description certified by the outer narrator.

The image later moves inside the body. In absolute solitude, lava seems to flow through his heart, and an ideal beloved is summoned to fill the abyss of existence. The volcanic landscape has become a model for surplus energy without an adequate object. Yet the attempted remedies repeat the structure: solitude, imagined as the last plank of a shipwreck, sinks into the abyss too. The problem cannot be solved merely by changing scenery.

Altitude also diminishes other people's dwellings. René weeps over humanity, but occupies a spectacular position apart from it. Souël's later demand for service therefore questions what such compassion accomplishes. Seeing the human world from above need not mean understanding or assisting its inhabitants.

Places to read

p. 153un abîme ouvert à mes côtés — René makes the volcanic scene an explicit personal emblem.
p. 160l'abîme de mon existence — The exterior gulf becomes an unfilled interior.
p. 165s'enfoncer dans l'abîme — The image recurs when his last imagined refuge fails.

Translation in this edition

The supplied English preserves “abyss”, making the recurrence audible. Its note at p. 152 warns against treating René's Etna ascent as a documented journey by Chateaubriand. The lexicon reads a fictional scene; it does not infer autobiography from the shared first name.